Gilead HIV Drug Gets FDA OK

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]), the world’s largest maker of HIV drugs, said today that the FDA has approved a new once-daily pill the company has developed for patients with HIV. The drug is a combination of three antivirals—emtricitabine/rilpivirine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate—that will be marketed under the name Complera. This is the second once-daily HIV pill from Foster City, CA-based Gilead, following a combination of efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Atripla), which Gilead markets in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.